NEW light has been shed on the site of the last mass battle on British soil - using an aeroplane and hi-tech lasers.

An aeroplane and hi-tech lasers has shed new light on the Culloden moor battle

Archaeologists from the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) employed cutting-edge laser scanning technology to provide a detailed model of Culloden moor.

In April 1746, Bonnie Prince Charlie's tartan-clad and lightly armed Highland warriors lost heavily to the Duke of Cumberland's vast Hanoverian army of redcoats on the bleak moorland, effectively ending the Jacobite uprising and the Stuart's claim to the throne.

To mark the 270th anniversary of the slaughter, the NTS employed state-of-the-art LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) equipment to reveal the full details of site, close to Inverness.

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Stefan Sagrott, archaeological data officer for the NTS said a light aircraft was flown over the battlefield with the LiDAR equipment firing lasers hundreds of times a second to record the lay of the land.

It's providing us with a view of the Culloden battlefield that we've never had before

Stefan Sagrott

He said: "LiDAR is revolutionising the way that archaeologists work and look for archaeological sites.

Because we can view and light the digital model from different angles, it can pull out topographical features that we wouldn't see in any other way.

"It's providing us with a view of the Culloden battlefield that we've never had before, and that's really exciting.

"We can filter the LiDAR data to remove some of the vegetation such as tree cover and this might allow us to find archaeological remains which are currently hidden within the tree cover.

"Having such a detailed topographical survey of the battlefield means that we can also use a geographical information system to carry out analysis of it to look at the positions that the different forces held and to see if the terrain had an influence on how it played out.

"The data will help us to manage and conserve the battlefield area, and we hope to use it in innovative ways to increase the visitor experience and understanding of the battlefield as well."

Mr Sagrott added: "We also know that the area has a lot of prehistoric remains, such as the Clava Cairns just to the south of the Culloden, and these have been captured by the LiDAR survey as well, so we'll be using the data to visualise these and look at other archaeological sites in the area."